What makes the story even more sad...he called his Dad the day before saying he was scared of the track, one of the turns scared him. His dad told him he should put his feet down on the ice to slow him down on that turn, but that once he started down the track that he would finish because he knows his son is brave.

http://www.aolnews.com/article/father-nodar-kumaritashvili-luger-who-died-was-sc...

B-Valvs wrote on Feb 16^th, 2010 at 9:51pm:

Oh, I wasnt aware they did when he was dead too. Just to play that video when he was still in the hospital is stupid. The scene of that will always be in my mind. 

BigTruck wrote on Feb 15^th, 2010 at 2:49am:

When the women look like men, you know you've got a class A risky sport 

The skiing today was pretty risky too with several nasty falls. It just goes to show how small the margin for error is and how far you need to push yourself to excel.


Edit: If you're looking for the brass of all brass, check the blind skiers in the paraolympic games. That stuff's just insane 

Craig. wrote on Feb 17^th, 2010 at 7:25pm:

I'm glad they set the lads off from the womens, and the women off from the juniors rather than stopping the event entirely. It is just a quick response to the event rather than closing it down. It is terrible that it happened, but that comes with taking such great risks. It will definately help aid the safety of future events and improve the safety of the sports as a whole. The only fix I can think of is the bubble method, sticking plastic tubing over the entire track to make it into a sort of flume (now there's an idea for the summer games) but health and safety may not like it if it means they can't get to the racer, and visually it might impair the sport.

As found in the skiing, lumps on the snow can produce nasty consequences when you're sliding over small jumps on your back, head first. Again, this will help to aid the safety of the sport if the organisers know what to look out for in order to help protect the competitors.

Whenever anyone crashes or underperforms I still remind myself and others that they may have done the 'worst' but that is only relative to their competitors and they are the finest in the sport in the world. Pushing it is the only way to come to victory and sometimes it doesn't pay off, if that means skidding your luge as some people have done, falling off your skis or, unfortunately, paying the ultimate price.